The Left - Right Spectrum - a New View

on

In politics, there can be various aspects or “dimensions”, each with its own spectrum of viewpoints.

The two dominant dimensions in UK politics at present are these:
•   Left to Right
•   Remainer to Brexiter for Brexit

As Brexit is covered by my other blog, this blog will look at other aspects on UK Politics, where not inter-related to Brexit.

THE LEFT-RIGHT SPECTRUM AS A CIRCLE

This first posting picks up on an idea I first posted a couple of years ago, but for which I now have a more powerful explanation.

Rather than considering the Left-Right spectrum as a straight line, it is better to regard it as a circle:
  • Far Left policies are remarkably similar to Far Right, albeit for different objectives
  • It is easy for people on the Far Right to support parties on the Far Left and vice versa
  • In particular that explains why left-wing folk can be easily enticed to support Fascist parties on the Far Right
 In this diagram:
  • The scoring of the spectrum is from 0 for Farthest Left to 10 for Farthest Right.  
  • 5 represents Centre
  • The policies of the 5 major parties are as assessed by respondents to a ComRes poll in late 2014.  In 2018 the positions are rather different, as discussed below.
  • People rated themselves as just Right of centre on average (a weighted average score of 5.3), albeit with by far the largest number saying 5, absolutely in the centre

This circular spectrum is not a totally new concept.  The “Horseshoe Theory” was first developed in the 1970s, recognising that authoritarianism and totalitarianism share many common attributes. 
Diagrammatically:


But in my view the spectrum is better drawn as a continuous circle, as shown above.  This is despite the politicians in those two extremes and the political cognisci considering that there is a gap.  Ordinary people don’t have to jump a gap to swap sides. So in practice there isn’t a gap.

EXPLANATION

The explanation actually applies equally to other points on the spectrum, especially Centrism between the clearly Left and the clearly Right.  For this blog article, I will assume you have a basic appreciation of the two terms Left and Right and the difference between them, at least from the perspective of an ordinary voter.

It is worth considering any person’s political allegiance in two parts:
  • Their Objectives, such as their attitude to housing and homelessness
  • Their Policies, as to how to achieve any set of objectives

Broadly speaking the two aspects correspond to:
  • Heart – how people ‘feel’ about an issue - the Objectives
  • Head – what people ’think’ will best achieve objectives - the Policies

You can then describe someone’s position in terms of Heart:Head broadly corresponding to Objectives:Policies. 

It is helpful to also apply degrees of position.  Broad brush, Left and Right can be split into three levels for most purposes, with the words “Left and “Right” covering all three:
  • FarLeft and FarRight
  • HardLeft and HardRight
  • SoftLeft and SoftRight

At the extremes, as noted above, the FarLeft and FarRight policies are remarkably similar.  Even though their objectives might be different.  Left:FarLeft and Right:FarRight therefore appear very similar.  So people with different objectives can very easily move across the “Far end” of the circle.

Conversely for Centrists. People who are Left:SoftRight or Right:SoftRight share a common idea of policies.  This is despite a somewhat different set of objectives.

APPLICATION TO THE UK’S MAJOR PARTIES

Brexit aside, the main parties tend to attract people with the following attributes, in my assessment, in broad terms:
  • Labour, officially split into two factions:
    • Momentum is HardLeft:HardLeft with some FarLeft:FarLeft usually in other parties
    •  Progress is Left:SoftLeft and Left:SoftRight
  • Conservatives (Tories) are more like three groups, albeit being contiguous
    • SoftRight:SoftRight
    • HardRight:HardRight
    • FarRight:FarRight, including most of the Brexiters it appears
  • UKIP: FarRight:FarRight
  • LibDems: SoftLeft:SoftLeft
  • Greens: Left:HardLeft, especially economically
Placing the parties on the Left-Right spectrum is best assessed by their official Policies in their manifesto or website.  But the membership is a broader arc, reflecting a broader mix of Objectives

This highlights several aspects, with LR indicating both Left and Right:
  • UKIP overlaps with Conservatives, which retains many Tories who didn’t follow Carswell and Reckless into UKIP back in 2014, but certainly considered doing so
  • There are two LR:SoftRight groups, being the Right of the Labour party and the Left of the Conservatives.  Both groups beign called "moderates"

The LibDems position as SoftLeft:SoftLeft explains two observations:
  • The LibDems party is not a natural home for many moderate/centrist politicians and supporters in the two main parties who are LR:SoftRight
  • The LibDems are also not a great attraction to many voters who as shown above are also dominantly LR:SoftRight

It’s primarily the dominant number of LR:SoftRight voters who Labour and Conservatives fought over when “New Labour” won the 1997 election.  They do not have a natural Party 'home' and many complain they are politically homeless and are regarded as 'floating'.  The sheer numbers make this group the king-makers in any General Election.


FURTHERMORE

Which leaves two big questions unexplained:
  1. Why don’t the LR:SoftRight voters have a party to represent them?  That is a subject to be covered in a separate post.
  2. Related to that, how and when could the LR:SoftRight groups in Labour and Conservatives come together?  What’s stopping them?
Let's cover those questions in a separate post.

Comments

Post a Comment